What products or services do you have that you can actually give away or sell an unlimited amount of? I may be wrong, but you probably don’t currently have anything that you can keep selling forever without even a second thought about inventory. Creating your very own information product will change all that.

How are you able to sell or give away an unlimited amount of these products? Once you create a solid information product, there is only one file to worry about. That file is uploaded to your website or autoresponder service and can be downloaded by as many people as you can possibly make aware of it (don’t forget to market!). The best part is that for each and every sale you make, it costs you absolutely nothing. It’s all profit. Every penny.

Despite the boatloads of profit you could make from your information product, giving it away free may be an even better strategy. How can that be? By giving a solid information product with a high perceived value to your prospects for free, it builds trust and credibility and earns you more of their attention. What price can be put on these benefits? I guess it all depends on whether or not you plan on sticking around awhile or whether or not you want your entire business to revolve around information products, but creating long-term relationships with your prospects and clients is the end game for me as a business owner.

Even if I were to stop running Prevail PR some day, I believe I would be able to bring our clients along with me wherever I do go because I have earned their respect and trust. If I were to start a new venture tomorrow, I’m positive the majority of our clients and prospects would support me. And that hopefully translates into anything I do the rest of my life.

To me, that’s the true long-term value of a prospect and client, and vice versa. I know that whatever I do in life, I have to uphold the standards I have created for myself thus far. One way to build this type of relationship is to give your prospects something of value that represents you for free. And nothing performs this action better than a solid information product your prospects can refer to for years.

Deciding on what to write your information product about is only the first step. Setting a price and marketing it correctly are just as important. Don’t let the “loss” of profits deter you from offering your product for free. Think about how your information product helps your prospects and whether or not it will help lead them further into your company. If it won’t, maybe selling it will be the better option. But if it does, and it helps start a longer relationship with them, don’t hesitate to give it away for free. It’s only free for now. If your products and services do what you say and you offer better service and benefits than your competitors, they will have a hard time saying no to your future offerings.

A good example is how the rock band Radiohead decided to let their fans decide on how much to pay for their newest album, which was released only online as a digital file. Although most of them chose to download the album for free, Radiohead still won for several reasons. First, they have a giant database of valid e-mails with which they can base any future marketing campaigns around. Secondly, by bypassing traditional packaging restrictions, they saved an enormous amount of money by not supplying cd’s, cases, liner notes and store displays. Lastly, they built more trust and created more publicity for their band by being different. If they are willing to let you choose how much to pay them, think they stand by their music?